Textual Evidence of the Life of Simon Girty, American Revolutionary Turncoat

Author:

Anne Marie Goodfellows

Year:

2007

Pages:

412

ISBN:

0-7734-5512-4978-0-7734-5512-2

Price:

259.95

This volume makes certain materials from the Draper Manuscript Collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society accessible to researchers interested in the life and history of Simon Girty. Girty, a figure maligned as much as praised, served as an interpreter between Americans, British, and Native Americans during the American Revolution, and is remembered by some as a turncoat and by others as a hero. Lyman Draper, founder of the Wisconsin Historical Society in the mid-19th century, was keenly interested in Girty’s life and attempted to show that Simon Girty really was an honorable man. Here presented are annotated reproductions of the Draper manuscripts of interest to Girty scholars and historians of the American Revolution.

Reviews

"Through a Herculean effort of investigation, collection, and organization, Goodfellow has overcome the significant obstacles inherent in the Draper Manuscripts to provide researchers with a comprehensive and coherent volume containing almost all of the collection’s numerous passages and papers pertaining to Simon Girty. In creating this singularly unique reference source, her task has been neither brief nor easy, yet the results are overwhelmingly successful . . . By maintaining the balance and integrity of the sources, rather than selectively editing the lot to advance a predetermined point of view, Dr. Goodfellow has provided posterity with an invaluable resource from which to draw their own conclusions, a foundational body of evidence that will allow a new generation of Girty scholars to assess, and reassess, the life and legacy of this extraordinary individual. Finally researchers and historians have at their disposal a valuable tool with which to engage the still lingering premise forwarded by W. Marshall Anderson to Lyman Draper more than one hundred and sixty years ago: “If the Devil is entitled to his due, I suppose the same justice should be rendered to his lieutenant." – (from the Foreword) Professor Daniel P. Barr, Robert Morris University